A Mac well equipped with productivity applications means you can work faster without wasting time trying to figure out how to do this or that task. Here are the free applications that make a difference every day.
macOS has long lagged behind Windows when it comes to window management. Rectangle fills this gap with elegance: keyboard shortcuts to place a window on the left, right, quarter screen or full screen. Control + Option + directional arrow, and it's done. The application is open source, lightweight and consumes virtually no resources. Since macOS Sequoia, Apple has added native tiling, but Rectangle remains more flexible and faster for users who juggle several windows.
Notion alone replaces a notepad, a simple spreadsheet and a project management tool. The free version is generous: unlimited pages, sharing with up to 10 guests and basic integrations. For a freelancer or student, that's more than enough. The native Mac application is fluid and syncs instantly with the web and mobile versions.
For those who don't need Microsoft 365 or Pages/Numbers, LibreOffice offers a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation tool compatible with Office formats. Compatibility isn't always perfect on complex documents, but for 95 % of common uses, LibreOffice does the job for free.
Obsidian stores your notes as local Markdown files (no cloud required) and lets you link them together using a system of bidirectional links. Ideal for researchers, students or anyone who needs to structure their knowledge. The basic version is free and unlimited.
Keeping your Mac in tip-top shape doesn't require miraculous cleaning software - most of them are useless, if not harmful. There are, however, a few well-targeted utilities that deserve a place in your Applications folder.
| Application | Function | Why it's essential |
|---|---|---|
| AppCleaner | Complete uninstallation | Removes the application AND all its residual files (preferences, caches, logs). Drag the app onto AppCleaner and it will find everything. |
| Stats | System monitoring in the menu bar | CPU, RAM, disk, network, battery, temperature - everything at a glance. Open source and lightweight. |
| OnyX | MacOS maintenance and cleaning | Clears system caches, rebuilds Spotlight and Mail databases, and checks the disk. The benchmark maintenance tool for years. |
| GrandPerspective | Disk space visualisation | Displays a visual map of your drive so you can immediately spot the largest files and folders. |
If your Mac is slow or your storage is overloaded, our guide to clean up your Mac and free up space details the additional steps to be taken with these tools. And if the slowness problem persists despite the software clean-up, a SSD upgrade can give an ageing Mac a new lease of life.
macOS is natively more secure than many other systems, but a few applications strengthen protection without weighing down the system.
iCloud Keychain does the minimum, but Bitwarden goes much further: strong password generation, secure sharing, cross-platform support (Windows, Linux, Android, iOS), built-in two-factor authentication. The free version covers all personal needs. Compared with paid solutions such as 1Password, Bitwarden offers excellent value for money - especially when the price is zero.
The firewall built into macOS only filters incoming connections. LuLu monitors outgoing connections and alerts you whenever an application tries to access the Internet. You retain control over what communicates from your Mac. Open source, developed by Patrick Wardle (a well-known security researcher), LuLu is an excellent complement to the native firewall. Our article on whether a antivirus is required on Mac will help you build an appropriate security strategy.
Developed in collaboration with the Tor Project, Mullvad Browser is a privacy-focused browser. No VPN required (although recommended): the browser blocks trackers, standardises your digital footprint and stores nothing between sessions. Useful for sensitive searches or simply browsing without being profiled.
Free multimedia applications on the Mac have come a long way. Here are the best for reading, editing and creating.
| Application | Usage | Key benefit |
|---|---|---|
| IINA | Universal video player | Plays all formats (MKV, AVI, HEVC, etc.), native macOS interface, light and fast. The modern VLC for Mac. |
| HandBrake | Video conversion and compression | Convert any video with Apple Silicon hardware acceleration. Predefined profiles for every use. |
| Audacity | Audio editing | Recording, editing, effects, noise removal. The benchmark free audio editor for 20 years. |
| GIMP | Advanced photo retouching | Free alternative to Photoshop. Steep learning curve, but professional features. |
| DaVinci Resolve | Professional video editing | Incredibly comprehensive free version: editing, colour grading, effects, audio mixing. Used by film professionals. |
For those who edit video regularly, our article on the’Mac optimisation for video editing covers the recommended system and hardware settings.
The small applications that save time in everyday use deserve a special mention. None of them are essential on their own, but together they make using macOS much smoother.
The macOS built-in Archive Utility handles ZIP, but that's about it. Keka supports 7z, RAR, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, XZ, LZIP, DMG, ISO and many others. It also lets you create password-protected archives - a feature not available with the native tool. See our additional tips in our guide to compress files on the Mac.
Over time, the menu bar fills up with icons. Hidden Bar lets you hide the ones you don't need to see all the time, with a simple click to display them on demand. Open source and ultra-light.
Cmd+Tab on macOS switches between applications, not between windows. AltTab reproduces the behaviour of Windows: each window appears individually with a visual preview. For those who come from Windows or who work with many simultaneous windows, this is a life-changer.
macOS does not natively allow you to adjust the brightness and volume of external screens via the keyboard. MonitorControl solves this problem by using your monitor's DDC/CI protocol. The keyboard's brightness and volume keys then work in exactly the same way as with the built-in screen.
Safari is excellent for battery life and macOS integration, but Firefox offers better privacy protection by default and a richer ecosystem of extensions. The two browsers complement each other well: Safari for everyday use, Firefox for sessions where privacy is paramount.
Apple's Mail application does the bare minimum, but Thunderbird goes much further: advanced multi-account management, integrated calendar, native PGP encryption, powerful filters. The recent redesign (Thunderbird Supernova) has modernised the interface while retaining the open source philosophy.
For conversations that deserve a real level of confidentiality, Signal is the benchmark. The Mac application syncs with your phone and offers messages, voice and video calls, all encrypted end-to-end. No data collection, no advertising, funded by donations only.
Before downloading anything, explore the applications already installed on your Mac. Some are surprisingly powerful and often overlooked.
| Native application | What most people don't know |
|---|---|
| Preview | Annotate, sign and merge PDFs, edit images, fill in forms - much more than just a viewer. See also our guide to merge PDFs on the Mac. |
| Automator / Shortcuts | Automate repetitive tasks: batch rename files, resize images, convert formats, create custom workflows. |
| Disk utility | Create encrypted disk images, repair volumes and partition disks. See our complete Disk Utility guide. |
| Activity monitor | Identifies CPU, RAM and energy-hungry processes. When your Mac is slow. |
| Time Machine | Automatic incremental backup. If you haven't already configured it, our guide Time Machine accompanies you step by step. |
Downloading free applications on a Mac requires a minimum of vigilance. Here are some best practices to avoid unpleasant surprises.
Always go for official sources : the Mac App Store, the developer's official site or the project's GitHub page. Avoid third-party download sites (MacUpdate, Softonic, etc.) which sometimes package applications with unwanted software.
When macOS blocks the opening of an application downloaded from outside the Mac App Store with the message «Unable to open because the developer could not be verified», right-click on the application and choose Open. This bypasses Gatekeeper for this application only - never disable Gatekeeper globally. Depending on the Apple documentation on Gatekeeper, This layer of protection checks that applications come from an identified developer and have not been modified.
Finally, after installing several applications, check your connection details in System Settings → General → Opening. Some applications are added silently at start-up, which can slow down the launch of your Mac.
The applications listed in this article are all reputed to be safe and widely used by the Mac community. The risk comes mainly from the download source: always opt for the developer's official site or the Mac App Store. Open source projects (Rectangle, Bitwarden, Stats, etc.) also benefit from ongoing community auditing.
A native macOS application is developed specifically for the system and uses its frameworks (SwiftUI, AppKit). An Electron application embeds a full web browser, which makes it more memory- and CPU-intensive. Notion, Visual Studio Code and Slack use Electron. They work well, but consume more resources than an equivalent native application.
The vast majority of the applications listed here offer a native Apple Silicon or universal version. Those that do not yet run via Rosetta 2 without any noticeable problems. Check in the Activity Monitor («Type» column) whether an application runs in «Apple» (native) or «Intel» (via Rosetta 2).
For personal or student use, yes. LibreOffice and Apple's iWork applications (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) cover most needs. On the other hand, in a professional context with frequent exchanges of complex Word or Excel documents, perfect compatibility is only guaranteed with Microsoft 365.
Dragging the application into the Recycle Bin deletes the main file but leaves some residue (preferences, caches, data). Use AppCleaner: drag the application onto it, and it will find and delete all the associated files. For applications installed via the Mac App Store, you can also delete them from Launchpad by holding down the Option key.
Favour lightweight native applications: Rectangle, AppCleaner, Hidden Bar, Stats, IINA and Keka consume very few resources. Avoid heavy Electron applications (Slack, Discord, VS Code) and prefer their web versions if your Mac has limited RAM. See also our guides for optimising a slow Mac and to consider a SSD upgrade.
For the majority of Mac users, built-in protection (Gatekeeper, XProtect, Notarization) combined with an outbound firewall like LuLu and a password manager like Bitwarden are more than enough. We analysed this issue in detail in our article Mac antivirus: is it really necessary?
Open the Activity Monitor (in Applications → Utilities), locate the application in the list of processes and look at the «Type» column. «Apple» means that the application is native Apple Silicon. «Intel» means that it works via Rosetta 2. You can also right-click on the application in the Finder, choose «Read information» and check whether it says «Universal» or «Apple Silicon».
It depends on the project, but the applications mentioned in this article (Rectangle, Bitwarden, Stats, IINA, LuLu) all benefit from an active community and regular updates. Check the date of the last commit on GitHub to make sure the project is still being maintained. A project that has not been updated for more than a year may cause compatibility problems with new versions of macOS.
Yes, Homebrew is the reference package manager on macOS. With a simple command like brew install --cask rectangle, You can install and update applications without going through the browser. This is particularly useful for quickly configuring a new Mac. Our article on essential terminal commands explores this tool in detail.
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